A commission by Storefront for Art and Architecture 
Curated by Yasmeen M. Siddiqui 

Opening reception: Tuesday, September 19, 6:30—8:30 pm 

DESCRIPTION  
Fascia refers to the body’s connective tissue to a sheath or the protective membrane surrounding wheat or bodily organs, a collection of objects that give the appearance of a band or a stripe, an opening or doorway, or the layered surface that creates the illusion of dividing architectural structures. Engaging with these meanings, Pia Lindman’s Fascia project unfolds as a series of live performances, video recordings, and drawings that engage in a visual dialogue with Storefront for Art and Architecture façade. Like Acconci and Holl (designers of the façade), she challenges the traditional notion of a façade as constituting a membrane that simultaneously separates and erotically joins the inside with the outside. Fascia departs from the definition of the membrane-wall as both a marker and an embodiment of space. 

Lindman’s live performances reflect the tension between art and architecture as a conflict between what is pleasing (the seduction of surfaces, facades or the face itself) and that our experience of space is circumscribed and curtailed by the very structures we inhabit. For these performances, Lindman designed a chair, echoing the devices used in early photographic portraitures. Tiny metal arms extend from the headrest of the chair to hold her head in place as she sits. More devices appear with every performance: another arm extends up from the seat to fit into her mouth; clamps, magnets, and rods are added to this metal frame, forcing her face to conform to increasingly more difficult positions. The structure of the apparatus gradually takes control over the face, pulling and stretching the skin, eyelids, and lips into mechanized grimaces.

These performances are recorded and shown as a series of time-lapsed (layered) videos focusing on her face. With a fixed camera, she films 60-minute close-ups that are edited into one-minute transparent-layered sections: a one-minute video shows 60 minutes simultaneously. Every facial gesture is blurred (the blinking of eyes, the parting of lips, and the tiny movements of the head due to breathing). Because of the duration of the pose, the face generates minute movements that do not emphasize the face’s individual features but cause it to lose sense of the intentional expression. At the same time, it also appears immobile — a grimace, a mask. Surprisingly, the fusion of mobile and immobile elements causes the architecture of the face to move and the facial expressions to dissolve. 

Pia Lindman’s work contributes to the tradition of minimalist performance and community-oriented art, suggesting new perspectives in merging artistic, social, and scientific research. Having site-specific art tradition as a point of departure, her work revolves around the themes of social context and space, as well as the performative aspect of making and experiencing art. Internationally known for her interactive performance and installation - Public Sauna - first developed during graduate work at MIT and later presented at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in 2000, Lindman explores how our bodies become the loci for interaction between private and public. Her most recent work explores human and non-human gestures. 

FASCIA has been made possible, in part, by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council with the generous support of The September 11th Fund. 

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE  
Tuesday, September 19, 2006, 7:00 pm 
Saturday, September 23, 2006, 3:00 pm 
Saturday, October 14, 2006, 3:00 pm